


This Too Shall Pass

by orphan_account



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Family, Gen, Sibling Rivalry, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 20:40:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3502085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Éponine finds herself alone on Valentine's Day, but with siblings like hers, she finds that it's really okay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Too Shall Pass

There are few things worse, Eponine decides, than being alone on Valentine’s Day. One of those few things, she figures out quickly after seeing Azelma dressed to the nines and positively beaming as she leaves with barely a wave in Eponine’s direction, is being alone  on Valentine’s Day while everyone else around you is not.

 

That being said, Eponine is not quite sure why she decides to make it worse by browsing Facebook and Instagram and looking at all of the happy, coupley photos posted but she does. Or more specifically, she looks at Marius’ photos. She isn’t friends with Cosette, doesn’t know if they ever really could be and is too stubborn to ever really try, but she sees enough pictures of her and sees enough statuses that it doesn’t really matter. She’s never seen Marius quite as happy as he is with Cosette and never truly had any delusions she could ever make him so, but it stings all the same.

 

The champagne she’d thought would help numb the pain has only done the opposite and she feels everything bubbling up right at the surface, threatening to explode if she doesn’t stop torturing herself soon. In an act of self-preservation, she slams her laptop shut and then with nothing else to do with her hands, thoughtlessly decides to down the rest of her glass.

 

“You almost looked like mom just there,” Eponine starts, having thought she was alone and is both surprised and not at all so to see Gavroche climbing in through her window.

 

She blinks at him. Gavroche barely remembers their mother, and what he does remember likely isn’t very good. Eponine’s earlier memories are a lot fonder, making the later ones all the more bitter. Gavroche has never shown Eponine anything but concern and love, so the comment stings all the same.

 

“Can I have some?” Gavroche asks, inclining his head towards the half empty bottle beside her.

 

“Absolutely not,” Eponine snaps, more so out of hurt than concern. She’s been drinking since she was half his age, and she knows he’s done it plenty of times before.

 

Gavroche sidles up to her anywhere, snatching up the bottle as she makes no move to stop him and smirks as though he’s won something.

 

“I got you something,” he says, wiping at his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

 

“If this is another one of those things Bahorel -”

“It’s not,” Gavroche interrupts with a contemptuous rolls of his yes.

 

Then without another word and with no showmanship whatsoever, Gavroche drops whatever was in his hand to the floor where it louds with a soft clunk.

 

“Gavroche! It’s. . .”

 

It’s beautiful. It’s what Eponine has always wanted but never truly imagined herself having because she knows how costly how these are.

 

“It’s amazing Gavroche,” Eponine whispers, voice and hands trembling as he plucks the bracelet off the ground, fingering the delicate charms in disbelief.

 

“Amazing is the story of how I got it,” says Gavroche nonchalantly as he drops onto the ground beside Eponine.

 

Eponine ignores him, still not sure this is real.

 

“But that’s a story for another time I guess,” Gavroche adds slowly, as if now realizing just how much this gesture has affected his sister.

 

“Gavroche do you know how much these cost?”

 

Eponine does. She’s gone into enough jewelry stores to know its cost the very last cent, often while getting disinterested or even downright dirty looks from employees who know just from looking at her that she can’t afford it no matter if she’s wearing her nicest clothes and adapting the mannerisms she remembers from her mother used to do the same.

 

She also remembered how easy it would be to steal it, possibly right under their noses, possibly after they closed own. The fact that she’s fed both her siblings while having next to nothing and the scars across her once soft and delicate attest to both those facts.

 

She never did either though, for reasons she thinks too unattainable to ever truly think possible, but she entertained the notions anyway.

 

“There aren’t many charms. Montparnasse said you’d probably want to pick those out yourself, but I nicked the ones I knew you’d like.”

 

“Montparnasse was there?” Eponine asks, surprised, but her eyes do not leave the bracelet, as if afraid it’ll disappear if she does so.

 

“O’ course he was. Practically insisted, really.”

 

Eponine has no doubt that Gavroche more than likely conned Montparnasse into helping him. Most people have a soft spot for her brother even bigger than hers.

 

Swallowing at the lump in her throat and fighting back tears she pulls her brother into a hug, which he struggles against as she kisses his cheek.

 

“Gross Eponine! I’m never doing anything nice for you again.”

 

Eponine wants to stay this is above and beyond simply nice.

 

“Explain the charms you did get me,” Eponine says instead, smiling as best as she can.

 

Gavroche puts upon a great show of reluctance, but she can tell he’s pleased. He’s quite proud of these types of things.

 

“Alright, well this,” Gavroche explains, grasping at a small charm in the shape of book. “Is ‘cause you like to read so much, especially those sappy vampire books but the saleslady didn’t have anything do with vampires so you’ll just have to settle for this.”

 

Eponine just rolls her eyes fondly and tugs at his hair. As if she’d complain about any part of this gift.

 

“And this,” Gavroche continues, tugging at a Minnie Mouse charm, “is because of that picture that you have of you and Azelma at Disney, where I still haven’t been by the way.”

 

The fond memory of that trip tugs at Eponine’s heartstrings and she again find herself struggling not to cry.

 

“This one’s my favorite though,” Gavroche says. He’s holding a small musical note between his fingers, looking like he’s almost in awe, then he looks back up at his sister.

 

“You’re always singing and so I thought,” Gavroche looks back at the charm and lets it slip from between his fingers, and shrugs nonchalantly. “You have a nice voice, and I can tell you like to sing, I guess.”

 

And that’s when Eponine starts to cry. The bracelet again falls to the floor with a clunk as Gavroche struggles to make his sister stop crying.  


“I’m crying because you’ve made me so incredibly happy Gavroche,” Eponine explains, laugh slightly hysterical as she wipes tears from her eyes.

 

Gavroche blinks at her, clearly not comprehending how such a thing is possible. There is so much Gavroche knows and yet so much he doesn’t yet.

 

“It can happen,” Eponine continues, voice ever so slightly patronizing.

 

Gavroche’s face flushes with a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance.

 

“Well warn me next time. I was going to take the thing back.”

 

Eponine just snorts inelegantly and quickly snatches the bracelet and clasps it around her still delicate wrist and if possible it looks even lovelier now than before.

 

“Ugh you’re worse than Azelma,” Gavroche complains, but there’s no real disgust in his words.

 

Eponine feels her stomach twist with jealousy, unable to help that despite the beautiful gift she’s still alone while her sister is not.

 

“What’d you get her?” Eponine asks, still admiring her wrist.

 

“One of those lockets, put that photo of all of us in there. You know that one where we’re _not_ at Disney?”

 

“So not a picture of her with her future husband then?”

 

She’s not even bothering to hide her bitterness at this point, toying with the charms of her bracelet.

 

“Well considering they broke up months ago, uh, no.”

 

“What? How come I didn’t know this?”

 

“Because you didn’t ask? She came home crying one night and everything. Don’t worry, I had Bahorel take care of it.”

 

Eponine can’t find herself to even care about the latter half of that sentence.

 

“Then where was she going tonight?” Eponine asks, immediately sitting up straighter from where she’s been slumped across the couch.

 

“Well she was just wondering around the park when I found her, so maybe she’s still there?”

 

Gavroche looks more concerned now than he did when she was crying, as if he can’t possibly process how she didn’t know this about their own sister. She feels worse now than she did earlier.

 

“Was she alone?”  


“Well yeah, but she’ll be fine, she’s got a knife.”

 

“I thought she would be with someone. It’s Valentine’s Day.”

 

“Well _you’re_ not with someone.”

 

“I’m in my home alone in clothes I’ve been wearing since yesterday.”

 

“That’s disgusting,” says Gavroche, wrinkling his nose like he doesn’t do the same thing.

 

“No one asked you Gavroche.”

 

“I bought you jewelry!”

 

“You _stole_ me jewelry.”

 

Gavroche grumbles, but knows there isn’t a counter argument for that one. Or just doesn’t feel it’s worth his time at least. He’s a mystery even to his own sister.

 

“Whatever, I’ve got places to be,” Gavroche huffs, snatching up a jacket from the back of the couch and getting up swiftly from his place beside Eponine.

 

“And where are you going?”

 

Gavroche snickers as he slips on his jackets and opens the door.

 

“I’ve got a date of course. What kind of loser is alone on Valentine’s Day?”

 

He leaves before she can throw anything at him, but that doesn’t stop her from trying.

 

Xx

 

Azelma gets back a few hours later, hair mussed like she’s had hands run through it and a day dreamy smile. She’s a great con artist, Eponine thinks with a bit of pride, good enough to probably even pull one over on Montparnasse and that’s definitely saying something.

 

“How was your date?” Eponine asks, voice sickly sweet in a way it never truly is.

 

Azelma blinks, unsure if she’s being called out or not.

 

“Better than being here all alone I suspect,” Azelma responds, voice haughty and proud. She struts away, clearly done with not-really conversation.

 

“Well I guess being alone in the park has a better view.”

 

Azelma pauses and takes a deep breath, Eponine can tell by the way her shoulders rise a fill in quick succession.

 

“Well, you were being depressing so I wanted to get out.” Azelma says, whirling around to face Eponine as unafraid of confrontation as Eponine.

 

She intended the words to hurt, and that hurts more than the words themselves. They were once so close and she’s not sure what changed in the last year or so but it stings all the same.

 

“So that’s what made you lie for months?”

 

That gives Azelma pause and she grumbles threats against Gavroche under her breath.

 

“Gavroche isn’t the liar here. Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

 

“Because you were jealous of me for once!” Azelma shouts, eyes bright with fury that Eponine knows it directed and her and her only but doesn’t know why.

 

“What?”

 

Eponine has felt jealous before. She feels it every day nearly, feels it in her bones when she sees pretty girls buying even prettier dresses without a second though. She’s seen Musichetta in fights with Joly and Bossuet and watched as they talk about maturely and work everything out and come out of it better than ever. She’s seen the way Marius looks at Cosette and the way Cosette looks at him back and the whiskey she’s chugged afterwards has burned less.

 

She’s never imagined that feeling directed at her, at least not since she was a child and had things to be envious of and even then she can’t imagine Azelma feeling even a fraction of that towards her.

 

“What?” She asks again, her voice shaking ever so slightly.

 

“You heard me just fine. I’m jealous of you, happy? It’s also been so easy for you, with your pretty hair and people like you so easily and you’ve got the perfect figure and you don’t get what you want for once in your life and it’s the end of the world. And then a nice guy likes me and it felt wonderful and I saw that you were jealous for once so maybe I lied a bit but can you blame me?”

 

Eponine blinks. That’s not at all what she was expecting. Azelma is thin and beautiful, the way Cosette is. She’s tall and maybe her hair isn’t model perfect but she’s got cheekbones to kill for and Eponine still recalls the day when Eponine was too big to fit through the windows and doggy doors their father needed them to and him taking Azelma along instead as she took watch in the cold.

 

“No! Of course I’m not happy!” Eponine yells because unlike Musichetta fighting back is the only way she knows.

 

“You’re my sister and I love you and you’re beautiful. Why the hell would I be happy that you feel that way?”

 

Azelma swallows thickly and looks away.

 

“I don’t know, alright?” Azelma, just as loud but her voice has lost its edge.

 

“Azelma,” and Eponine lowers her voice so Azelma knows she’s no longer angry, “you’re the most beautiful girl I know.”

 

And it’s true. Eponine isn’t lying. Yes, she knows Cosette who is tall and thin and has beautiful shiny black hair and is everything the magazines say women should be and then some because she’s even more kind than she is pretty and she’s absolutely gorgeous. She knows Musichetta with her curvy waist and perfect, loud makeup and her dancer’s legs.

 

But she knows Azelma too and her hair isn’t always perfect and the only make up she wears is either cheap or stolen, and her teeth aren’t blindingly white or perfectly straight but her smile still lights up a whole room. She’s looked after Gavroche and still blindly loves their parents in a way Eponine or Gavroche no longer do. Despite that love, when they left she stuck by her siblings and didn’t go with them when they asked her to. And that night when Eponine cried because everything was falling apart, Azelma was there at her side.

 

Yes, without a doubt Azelma is the most beautiful person she knows.

 

Azelma just stares at her a moment, scrutinizing gaze like she isn’t sure if Eponine is lying or not. Eponine stands tall and stares back, unafraid.

 

“Well that’s how I feel about you, and it seemed like you never felt the same until I had a boyfriend and I know it’s awful but it felt good for it to be reversed for once.”

 

Eponine swallows thickly, but nods in acceptance.

 

“When did you two break up?”

 

“Right before Christmas. He said he wasn’t ready for a lot of commitment and apparently buying me a present was just that.”

 

“So those flowers and that necklace . . .”

 

“Montparnasse helped.”

 

“Of course he did.”

 

Azelma’s lip quirks a bit, and it looks like she’s fighting a smile.

 

“I used to have the biggest crush on him, did you know that?”  


Eponine blinks, surprised.

 

Azelma just nods, not needing confirmation in words.

 

“And he was head over heels for you of course.”

 

Eponine snorts inelegantly. “Montparnasse is head over heels for no one but himself.”

 

Azelma shakes her head, muttering something Eponine can’t hear.

 

“I’m glad he did this for you. For Gavroche too.”

 

She remembers a conversation with Montparnasse a few years back, where he said he’d never leave a friend behind, and wonders if he still considers her that and that’s why he’s done these things.

 

“Is that he got you?” Azelma asks holding out her hands.

 

Eponine, finding herself smiling so hard it hurts, and stretches out her arm so Azelma can look at the charms without having to take the bracelet off.

 

She inspects the Minnie Mouse charm for longer than she doe the others and looks back up at her sister, charm still between her delicate fingers.

 

“I guess there was a bit of a theme,” Azelma says with a small smile and she drops the charm from between her fingers to grab at a locket around her neck that Eponine hadn’t even noticed.

 

Inside she reveals the photo Gavroche was referring to earlier, cut and minimized to fit just perfectly into the locket. It’s gorgeous and makes Eponine smile even harder.

 

“What in the world did we do to deserve Gavroche?”

 

Azelma smiles back just as broadly.

 

“Well I mean, there was the whole raising him thing.”

 

Eponine laughs at that, because the truth is Gavroche basically raised himself.

 

“I think those friends of yours are a good influence on him.”

 

It’s odd to hear them referred to as her friends because they really aren’t that. Yes they talk and hang out but for her it was always a means to see more of Marius. She likes them well enough, yes, but can’t see them feeling the same way about her.

 

“That they are,” Eponine agrees, because it’s nice that Azelma thinks that.

 

Azelma nods, and there is a silence between them that isn’t at all awkward, but Eponine finds herself feeling the need to fill it.

 

“Have you eaten dinner yet?”

 

Azelma shakes her head, “I didn’t want to go anywhere alone on Valentine’s Day.”

 

Eponine bites her lip, and wants to tell Azelma that there are worse things in the world, like the feeling she had earlier when she thought Azelma hated her for reasons she didn’t know.

 

“My uh . . .   _friend_ , Grantaire told me about this place. Says it’s a hole in the wall so there won’t be a lot of people there I think. If you’re hungry.”

 

Azelma nods furiously, as if she hasn’t eaten in ages. Eponine smiles, taking her sisters hand in her own and they head off, smiling and laugh like they used to do all the time.

 

Later that night, when they get back stomach stuffed and faces aching from laughing so much, Eponine finds she couldn’t imagine a Valentine’s Day better spent.

 

And the next day when Eponine gets on Facebook to find picture after picture of a beaming Marius and Cosette, and Cosette with a gorgeous ring on her long and perfectly manicured hand- she finds herself liking them all.

 

There’s still a sinking feeling in her stomach, but she knows there are worse feelings and finds herself smiling despite that.

**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to leave comments of any kinds, especially the constructive kind! I'm relatively new to this whole writing thing and would like to get better at it and know I definitely need improvement. 
> 
> & yes those 'sappy vampire books' Gavroche spoke of are the Twilight books, which I know many people don't like but I mean Eponine canonically thought dying with Marius at the barricades would be romantic so I don't think it was much a stretch.
> 
> Thank you for reading & again please let me know of any mistakes/things I could improve upon.


End file.
